Silicon Labs' Secure Vault iot security solution is the first to achieve global PSA Level 3 certification

Silicon Labs, a leading provider of chips, software and solutions for a smarter, more connected world, has officially become the world's first silicon chip innovator to receive the high-level PSA certification for software and hardware security protection in the Internet of Things (IoT). PSA Certification, a highly regarded iot hardware, software and device security program co-founded by Arm, awarded PSA Level 3 certification for Silicon Labs' EFR32MG21 wireless SoC integrated with Secure Vault.

This milestone cements Silicon Labs' leadership in securing the Internet of Things from bad actors. Secure Vault meets the stringent security software and Physically unclonable (PUF) hardware requirements defined by PSA Level 3 certification, significantly reducing the risk of security breaches in the iot ecosystem and mitigating intellectual property damage or lost revenue from counterfeit products. Specifically, Secure Vault technology has the following features:

● Protection against scalable local and remote software attacks;

● Defend against local hardware attacks, which, although historically less frequent than software attacks, are increasing due to the proliferation of inexpensive and easily accessible tools;

● Independent third-party laboratory testing can effectively prevent attempts to use sophisticated equipment to violate safety functions for a specific period of time.

Andy Rose, principal systems Architect and researcher at Arm, said: "As attacks on iot applications continue to increase and become more sophisticated, providing chip-level protection for devices is critical. "Silicon Labs is the first silicon chip vendor to achieve PSA Level 3 certification, providing proven PSA roots of trust and robust protection against a wide range of complex hardware and software attacks."

Matt Johnson, senior vice President of iot at Silicon Labs, said: "The continued growth of the Internet of Things depends on devices having trusted authenticity and security when they join the ecosystem. PSA Level 3 certification provides iot device manufacturers and end users with the assurance they need to know that their iot applications effectively protect the private information used for authentication and prevent counterfeit or rogue devices from entering their supply chain, thereby avoiding irreparable damage to their brand and revenue. Silicon Labs is committed to innovation in chips, software and solutions to ensure the safe and secure growth of the iot consumers, businesses and industries we serve. "The strategic investments we have made to become a leading provider of secure iot wireless solutions and to be the first chip innovator in the world to be certified at PSA's highest security level is a strong testament to our success."

Launched in 2020, Secure Vault is an award-winning suite of advanced features designed to help connected device manufacturers respond to escalating and evolving iot security threats and regulatory pressures. Secure Vault includes its own security kernel as well as ROM, RAM and Flash, which includes core encryption algorithms and true random number generator (TRNG) capabilities, secure key management and storage, and physical tamper protection. And a secure identity created at the time of chip manufacturing that is protected by a Silicon Labs root certificate chain.

In 2020, Secure Vault achieved PSA Level 2 certification and won gold in the 2020 LEAP Connectivity category. Secure Vault is also SmartCert certified by the ioXt Alliance for its robust iot security protection. In October 2020, the ioXt Alliance selected PSA certification as the foundation of the Root of Trust scheme in its certification program.

The PSA Certification program was co-founded by Arm in 2017 to provide a clear framework for securing connected devices, from analytics to security assessment and certification. The framework provides standardized resources to address the growing fragmentation of iot requirements and removes security barriers in product development. PSA certification provides 3 levels of safety assurance, of which PSA Level 3 certification indicates a significant commitment to the safety of equipment. Under the PSA3 certification standard, chip suppliers are required to meet complex protection configuration requirements, which covers strong protection against a range of complex software and physical iot attack methods.